What the study measures
The core metric is current annual dividend income in 2026 from an investment made in 2006. The result is shown under a full DRIP assumption, which means each dividend payment is used to buy additional shares. That extra share accumulation is what makes the final income result more powerful than a simple cash-only dividend view.
What is included
- Initial investment amount shown on each page
- Dividend reinvestment through time
- Split-adjusted prices and dividend history
- A focus on dividend income rather than total return
What is not included in the headline number
- Capital gains
- Taxes and withholding differences by account type
- Trading friction, slippage, and personal cash-flow decisions
- Any promise that the next twenty years will look like the last twenty years
Why this matters
Many dividend investors understand yield, but fewer people stop to think about how much reinvestment can change future income. These pages try to make that idea feel real. They translate a long period of compounding into a number that is easy to picture in daily life.
How to use the pages
Use the what-if pages as educational case studies. They are useful for pattern recognition, expectation setting, and learning what made some dividend stories stronger than others. They are not a reason to buy any stock without checking valuation, risk, and payout quality today.